I don't think anyone can argue that, three months into the season, 2019-20 has so far been an immense disappointment. Floundering in the league with little real form, out of the first domestic cup, held to a draw in Europe in our 3:30pm kickoff and looking like a shadow of our former selves.
Some at the club are working themselves into the ground to stop the rot. Most are contributing to that rot. I ask myself who's at fault, and the same names from last season - and a few new ones to boot - crop up because the same people continue to fail us:
Emery - The man is utterly clueless. I gave him a pass last season but he has failed to learn anything. His tactics are awful, his substitutions are just baffling, and he genuinely seems like he has no grasp on his squad, his duties or the expectations of him. His time is up as far as I'm concerned.
Xhaka - I've tried to defend him but he has not improved. It doesn't help that he has been misused by Emery but given his limitations I struggle to see where he'd be effective. His outburst has alienated him from the fans and surely he's on borrowed time now.
Luiz - Just horrendous. Was good - not great, just good - five years ago at Chelsea when he had a bit of pace and pre-VAR times meant he could get away with murder. As with Silvestre, a rival team selling us a has-been is always poor business. An utter liability.
Sokratis - Mobility of the Exxon Valdez and the same net effect on the environment around him. So much for the 'destroyer' I thought he was. Think Oleg Luzhny on his absolute worst day.
Pepe - Early days, but really - for £72m what has he actually done, and how long is he expected to take to settle in? I've never seen him play even remotely well. When Auba dries up, we need goals from elsewhere and they aren't coming from Pepe.
Özil - An absentee, even when he plays. The occasional good game isn't enough to convince me that he deserves to be our biggest earner and he still doesn't track back, tough out duels or refrain from looking like a sulky teenager when things aren't going his way.
Maitland-Niles - Fantastically athletic. Doesn't have a footballing brain in his head. Decision making is constantly poor and he looks like he has gotten worse as the last two seasons have gone on.
Some of these will be unpopular opinions but I genuinely worry for the club. We have so much deadwood to clear, starting with the man at the top. I genuinely hope this weekend will be the last for Emery and that some of the weaker players will follow him out. If not, things will just keep getting worse for us and will take longer to repair.
The Usual Suspects
posted on 8/11/19
comment by 5-2 (U10698)
posted 17 minutes ago
We concede same amount of goals when Ozil is playing and not tracking back as we are when someone else plays his role and is tracking back.
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No, we really don't.
posted on 8/11/19
comment by 5-2 (U10698)
posted 44 minutes ago
Özil - An absentee, even when he plays. The occasional good game isn't enough to convince me that he deserves to be our biggest earner and he still doesn't track back, tough out duels or refrain from looking like a sulky teenager when things aren't going his way.
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This tracking back thing really makes me mad. Is it his job to track back? Does Messi tracks back? Ronaldo? Ozil is attacking player, his job is to give service to attackers and he is best by far in our team in that. 2 midfielders behind him should protect us, not Ozil.
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Does ozil score near enough every game and get an assist to go with it? Comparing ozil to messi and ronaldo who play as strikers is ridiculous. Even hazard, a vastly superior player to ozil tracked back and played to the system defensively.
posted on 8/11/19
comment by WB2 (Emery'll Get Me Killed) (U8276)
posted 3 hours, 54 minutes ago
comment by 5-2 (U10698)
posted 17 minutes ago
We concede same amount of goals when Ozil is playing and not tracking back as we are when someone else plays his role and is tracking back.
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No, we really don't.
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Oh really? Show me the stats that prove this.
posted on 8/11/19
Messi works very hard for Barcelona both defensively & offensively, don't think anyone can really question Ronaldo's work rate to Ozil's, just look at what he has achieved in life and as a player by adding sheer hard work to natural ability.
It's actually comical to mention Ozil's name in the same sentence as Messi or Ronaldo, if he was even 1/10th as good as either of them none of us would give a chit whether he worked hard defensively or not.
posted on 8/11/19
*compared to Ozil's
posted on 8/11/19
comment by 5-2 (U10698)
posted 3 hours, 3 minutes ago
comment by WB2 (Emery'll Get Me Killed) (U8276)
posted 3 hours, 54 minutes ago
comment by 5-2 (U10698)
posted 17 minutes ago
We concede same amount of goals when Ozil is playing and not tracking back as we are when someone else plays his role and is tracking back.
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No, we really don't.
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Oh really? Show me the stats that prove this.
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Stats are right where you looked when you went and checked the season goal tallies for the last couple of years. Your problem is you failed to take into account the back line chaos (worse than ever) and five new players last season. All of which heavily contibuted to our goals conceded over last season and this one so far. You're making a simpleton mistake of only considering the single variable of goals conceded. Alot more stats involved than that for accurate representation of Ozil's liability factor.
Yes we had defensive issues before when Ozil was blowing games by not playing, week in week out. But that back line was nowhere near the dire debacle of this season, nor injury ravaged like last, for starters. You are trying to use goals conceded by totally different issues (which were there or weren't as bad) over the last one and a bit seasons. As a smokescreen for Ozil's p!ss poor performances for 3 years in a stronger team that had better players. We might have had defensive issues for his 5 years sure. But they were nowhere near as dire when Ozil was a regular starter. As they are now that he isnt. Nor does this team have the familiarity of the side Ozil was in the first 3 years.
Got a better question for you than “Is it his job to track back?” Is it his job to do as his manager fecking well tells him to and bust a gut playing for a team paying him more than a quarter mil a week to do so??? My question is better and it is the one you should be asking. Instead of trying to make the bogus case that it's not a footballer's job to do as the team manager says or work hard for his quarter mil a week
posted on 8/11/19
comment by You Can't Buy Class (U12019)
posted 3 hours, 36 minutes ago
Messi works very hard for Barcelona both defensively & offensively, don't think anyone can really question Ronaldo's work rate to Ozil's, just look at what he has achieved in life and as a player by adding sheer hard work to natural ability.
It's actually comical to mention Ozil's name in the same sentence as Messi or Ronaldo, if he was even 1/10th as good as either of them none of us would give a chit whether he worked hard defensively or not.
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This too.
posted on 9/11/19
comment by Greatteamswinit4times- a terrible enemy (U6008)
posted 11 hours, 55 minutes ago
Quite how Emery spent 72 million on a wide player when that money could have brought in 2 decent central players to solidify the spine of your team, I'll never know.
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Emery doesn't sign the players. We were absolutely desperate for wingers though, we didn't have any before Pepe so it was the right place to invest. Whether Pepe is the right man is another question.
We have numbers in CM, we actually have some quality but the manager is destroying any chance of success with very poor tactics
posted on 9/11/19
People need to relax on the Pepe situation and same with Tierney, both have shown a lot of quality at times already although they have lacked consistency I think that's more down to Emery since the whole team have lacked consistency.
posted on 9/11/19
comment by You Can't Buy Class (U12019)
posted 1 hour, 23 minutes ago
People need to relax on the Pepe situation and same with Tierney, both have shown a lot of quality at times already although they have lacked consistency I think that's more down to Emery since the whole team have lacked consistency.
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Yes completely agree.
Some players have been awful regardless of the situation and time (Xhaka, Mustafi etc) but others are being judge based on a few games during the full disaster that is Emery's management
Everyone deserves a clean slate under a better manager, even the two mentioned above unless sold beforehand (they are awful but could be squad players until replacements are secured)